Bluetooth 3.0 Launches April 21

(PhysOrg.com) -- The short-range wireless standard Bluetooth 3.0 will officially launch on April 21. The Bluetooth 3.0 standard is expected to deliver faster short-range wireless speeds up to 480 Mb per second.

Bluetooth 3.0 will feature considerably increased speeds, allowing for the transfer of large video files, music collections and photo libraries wirelessly within seconds. With the addition of EPC (Enhanced Power Control) we can see improvements to reduce the number of device disconnects when syncing.

With the new 3.0 standards, the addition of Generic Alternate MAC/PHY (AMP) technology will allow Bluetooth 3.0 devices to transfer data at speeds compatible with Wi-Fi. The 802.11 Protocol Adaption Layer (PAL) will enable the Generic AMP feature to be used with an 802.11 radio.

With the 3.0 standard, Bluetooth is used to create the pairing between two devices and data transfer is handled by Wi-Fi. To take advantage of the higher transfer speeds, both devices need Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. If Wi-Fi is not present on one of the devices, data transfer falls back to Bluetooth.

At the moment there are no details about Bluetooth 3.0-ready devices, however more details will be available, including a list of chip makers that are lined up to support the new spec, on April 21.

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I'm not really a tech, but maybe it's about how much energy it uses? My tiny bluetooth headset works for days, while my smartphone battery, which is huge compared to headset's, drains in a couple hours when I use wifi. Am I thinking in the right direction?

Yes, for sure... Good point. If they haven't already, I'd think they'd put "power/speed stepping" into WiFi devices at some point.

I think right now the device(s) are always blasting the signal as high as possible to obtain the fastest speed. For more mundane operations (ping for example), you'd think a fraction of the bandwidth would be sufficient.